Working Families Blog is the official blog of New York Working Families, covering issues and politics important to the working families of New York.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

A Solid Plan

Our brother Eddie Bautista's guest op-ed in Sunday's Daily News is a must-read for all those concerned about the city's, and the region's, trash issues. Here it is in full:

Each borough should handle its own trash

By EDDIE BAUTISTA

Plans to change the city's sanitation program so that garbage gets floatedout of the city on barges - not hauled out of town on trucks every day -represent a smart, fair way to correct a terrible injustice in how New Yorkhandles its trash.

Right now, it literally takes millions of truck trips a year to get thecity's trash out of town - and over 80% of the garbage is trucked, stored, andbundled for interstate transport at waste transfer stations in just four of NewYork's 59 community districts.

Not one waste transfer facility is in Manhattan; most are concentrated inlow-income communities in the South Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

The diesel fumes from all the trucks carry high concentrations of fineparticulate matter, contributing to the staggeringly high rates of asthma inthese neighborhoods.

The city's environmental leaders, including Marcia Bystryn of the League ofConservation Voters and Mark Izeman of the Natural Resources Defense Council,are united in calling for an end to this injustice. The new Solid WasteManagement Plan proposed by the mayor is an important step in the rightdirection.

The plan would convert many city-owned properties - distributed equitablyaround the city's waterfront - into state-of-the art marine transfer stations.Every barge used to float trash away would carry the equivalent of 15 long-haultruckloads.

Most importantly, under the mayor's plan each borough would handle its ownwaste at these waterfront locations.

The big challenge of making the plan work is Manhattan. The boroughgenerates more than 40% of New York's commercial putrescible waste - thesmelliest, rotting garbage - but it all gets trucked daily to communities inBrooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

Manhattan has three dormant marine transfer stations that were operationaluntil a few years ago - at 59th St. and 12th St. on the Hudson River and 91stSt. on the East River. These are ideal locations for new stations that use gooddesign, new technology and a smart operational plan to handle the borough'swaste.

It's unjust for communities of color and working-class New Yorkers in theouter boroughs to bear the city's trash burden alone. Fairness demands that eachborough needs to be responsible for its own waste, and the mayor's plan willmake sure that happens.

Eddie Bautista is lead organizer of the Organization of WaterfrontNeighborhoods.